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JANUARY 7, 2021 | The Jewish Home OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home
From the Fire Parshas Shemos
Staying Strong By Rav Moshe Weinberger Adapted for publication by Binyomin Wolf
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s we transition from Bereishis to Sefer Shemos, the Torah repeats the names of Yaakov’s sons and concludes (Shmos 1:5), “And it was that the descendants of Yaakov who went down to Egypt were seventy souls, and Yosef was in Egypt.” Because we already knew from Parshas Vayechi that the number of people who went into Egypt included Yosef, it is difficult to understand why the pasuk repeats that point here. Rashi, commenting on the pasuk, therefore writes, “Now were [Yosef] and his sons not already included in the seventy? What does this come to teach us? Do we not already know that he was in Egypt? Rather, it comes to teach us the righteousness of Yosef. The Yosef who was a king in Egypt was the same Yosef who shepherded his father’s sheep and retained his righteousness.” In order to understand Rashi’s comment, we must study the ex-
planation offered by the Alter of Kelm, zt”l. When someone hears something he finds to be completely amazing, he repeats it again and again as an expression of his wonder. So too, the Torah, as it were, continues to repeat the wondrous fact that Yosef remained a tzaddik for so many years although he lived in Egypt, surrounded by intense impurity. That is why the Torah now repeats “and Yosef was in Egypt.” In order to understand the wondrous stability of Yosef’s righteousness, we must examine the meaning of the word “hayah, was,” in the phrase “and Yosef was in Egypt.” The Gemara in Brachos (13a) derives the rule that one may not recite the portions that comprise Shema Yisroel out of order from the pasuk (Devarim 6:6), “Vahayu ha’devarim ha’eilah, And these words [of Shema] shall be...” The Gemara derives this rule from the use of the word “hayu, And they shall be” to mean
“Vahayu – b’havaisan yahu, And they shall be – they shall remain as they were at the beginning [the words of Shema should be read in their original order from beginning to end without deviation].” We therefore see that the phrase “And they shall be,” which shares the same Hebrew root as the word “hayah, was,” in the phrase “and Yosef was in Egypt” implies that the subject of the pasuk should remain as it always was. Chazal similarly derive that tefillin and mezuzos must be written in the correct order because of the word “hayu, And they shall be.” This is the meaning of the Torah’s amazement that “And Yosef was in Egypt,” remaining exactly as he was before going into Egypt. His life followed the order he had committed himself to without any deviation. Let us now understand Yosef’s nature when he descending into
Egypt, which he retained despite the environment there. In the house of Potifar, the Torah (Bereishis 39:3) says, “And his master saw that Hashem was with him,” which Rashi explains to mean that “the name of heaven was always in his mouth.” The Midrash Tanchuma (Vayeishev 8) teaches that “when [Yosef] would go in to serve [his master], he would whisper, ‘Master of the world, you are my trust and my Father. Grant me grace, kindness, and mercy in your eyes, in the eyes of all who see me, and in the eyes of Potifar my master.’” In every interaction Yosef had, we can see many more examples demonstrating that “the name of heaven was always in his mouth.” When Yosef was tested by the temptation of Potifar’s wife, Yosef said (Bereishis (39:9), “And how can I do this very evil thing and sin against Hashem?!” The Midrash (Bereishis Raba 14:3) expands on that idea,
